Randomosity
by JediMasterQuill
Summary: "Of course he had been coerced into promising. Of course...it was just so typical of her, to make him promise to wear this utterly ridiculous outfit in an effort to appear 'normal', whatever that meant..." warning: this contains spoilers for tAC. Updated!
1. Chapter 1

**First and foremost, this contains Atlantis Complex spoilers.**

**Secondly, I have had this idea since I read the book a few months ago. Well, I had another plot first, but then I wanted to write a prologue of sorts; hence this fic. This will be followed by another story, but this can be read as a one-shot. Enjoy! :D

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Of course he had been coerced into promising. Of course...it was just so typical of her, to make him promise to wear this utterly _ridiculous _outfit in an effort to appear 'normal', whatever that meant. But what was worse was that he had been forced to wear it out of the house, in public. At least Artemis could console himself with the fact that he wasn't in distinguished company. Far from it, in fact. The noise and bustle within the tawdry mall and especially the people who roamed the crowded lanes were most definitely not his choice of company.

_If I hadn't mentioned Holly's birthday..._ he mused regretfully to himself while he led his two younger brothers through a knot of noisy teenagers. _If I had just bought her a gift by myself, Mother wouldn't have sent me here..._

He had mentioned his best friend's upcoming birthday once, during a (mandatory) walk with his mom in the premises of the Fowl garden. Artemis had noted that he never really had anyone–aside from his immediate family–that he felt obligated to send a gift to. That was his first mistake. The next thing he knew, he had been talked into going out to the local shopping center instead of ordering something online, and wearing the tacky t-shirt and jeans that she had bought him. Also, Myles and Beckett had been with them at the time, and insisted upon coming and buying a gift as well. Speaking of his brothers...where was Myles? He had just been next to Artemis a moment ago.

Icy fingers of panic began to claw their way up Artemis' spine. Reflexively, he spun around, and was relieved to see that his other brother, Beckett, engrossed with the map he was holding, was still following him. The place was so crowded, and so easy for someone to get lost or kidnapped! Oddly enough, he was reminded of the day, years ago, when he had kidnapped Holly in order to ransom her. Was this some form of karma, or–

"Myles!" Artemis hissed, suddenly seeing his brother's blond head as the crowd shifted momentarily. Myles seemed to be headed towards a perfume shop...this didn't make sense...why would he want perfume? The people around him parted as he tried to catch up with the eldest twin. "No! Get back here!"

Luckily, he managed to snag the four-year-old's sleeve before he slipped through the revolving doors.

"What were you doing there?" he asked, pulling both boys to the edge of the throngs of people. "Myles, you nearly gave me a heart attack."

Myles and Beckett looked at each other in horror. "B-but, heart'tacks make people die!" gasped Beckett, looking at Artemis in extreme concern. Myles nodded rapidly in agreement. "You can't die!"

Artemis sighed, pressing his hand to his head where a headache had just struck. "It's a figure of speech. I will not die..._yet_."

"...did you forget to take your pills?" questioned Myles, a sly grin pulling at the corner of his lips. "Is that why you're holding your hand on your head? You only get headaches when you _forget_..."

"...perhaps." How had Myles known that Artemis had been neglecting to take the medicine that Dr. Argon had prescribed to help get rid of the Atlantis Complex? Perhaps he was more observant than he had originally assumed...or Artemis was even more careless than he had thought. "Now, that's not the point. The point is that you, Myles, was about to enter a perfume shop, when I told you specifically to keep an eye out for a gourmet chocolate shop."

Myles shrugged. "Those aren't perfumes, they're 'speriments."

"...experiments?"

"Yeah," Beckett didn't want to be left out of the conversation. "See? They're all potions in shiny bottles, and Myles was going to–"

"Shh!" Myles slapped his hand on Beckett's mouth with unusual force.

_This doesn't sound good..._"No, go on, Beckett; speak."

Beckett struggled against Myles, and managed to pry his hand off. But before he could talk, Myles shrieked at the top of his lungs, "Artemis, people're looking at your shirt!"

Without meaning to, Artemis whipped around, scanning the crowd while crossing his arms over his shirt to try and hide the bulk of the design. Seeing that no one was actually looking, he glared stonily down at Myles. "Not funny in the slightest. Come on, let's continue. Beckett, did you find the shop on the map?"

"No."

"Well, I suppose we shall just have to keep moving on."

"But I needed to get–"

"Get what?"

"..." Myles grumbled under his breath, causing Artemis to raise an eyebrow before taking both twins by the hand and walking back into the crowd. It didn't take long for him to notice that the two were rather irritated with him. He assumed that Myles was annoyed because Artemis had prevented him from entering the perfume shop, and Beckett...well, Beckett was probably upset because Myles was. He noticed that they kept exchanging significant looks behind his back. And they seemed to be whispering as well. None of which boded well for Artemis.

"Hey Arty," called Beckett, pulling at the edge of Artemis' shirt. "There's someone wearing your shirt!"

"The word 'hey' is slang, Beckett." said Artemis, refusing to look. He had already seen several people wearing variations of the t-shirt that his mother had gifted him, and he did not feel like looking at another one. Beckett frowned, and then attempted to trip Artemis, who almost fell to the ground. As he regained his balance, he noticed that Myles had dashed back from a small toy stand near the escalator.

"Hey, hey hey hey!" sang Myles, grinning almost wolfishly at his older brother. "Hey hey hey, _hey_, Arty!" The four-year-old held out his hand. A small, glinting device was in his palm. Before he had a chance to respond, Myles passed the device to Beckett who lunged forwards and slammed the metallic thing on Artemis' hand. Artemis felt a jolt of electricity course through his body, and immediately realized that somehow, Myles had gotten his hands on one of those toys that zapped people, but how he managed to get the thing to this voltage was beyond even him...

"Is he alright, Myles?" whispered Beckett, trying to ignore the curious stares of the people around them as he looked at his unconscious brother who lay eagle-spread on the floor.

Myles was beginning to reconsider his little plot of revenge. He had been almost furious at Artemis, but he certainly didn't want to kill him! At least he didn't steal one of the _huge_ batteries that the vendor was selling and rig it to the toy, as that would have surely done some damage. Then again, he probably had already...but wait; did his eyelid just twitch? "...I think so. He's moving. Yah, he's waking up!"

Both of them helped Artemis to his feet as the teen began to regain consciousness. He stood there for a moment, his ice-blue eyes blinking a few times as he cleared the spots from his vision. "Where...where am I? Oh, never mind...I remember now." He smiled warmly down at the twins, who both looked at each other in bemusement. "Oh, it's _wonderful_ being out again; look at all of the colors! He _never_ notices colors, just facts facts and more facts. It's dreary, truly it is...I really don't understand why he didn't like this place. Or this shirt! It's such a delightful shirt..."

"...kay..." Myles swallowed as Artemis looked around the mall with an expression of complete glee on his face. This wasn't good at _all_. What would mum say if he brought Artemis back home all goofy? "Uh, Arty–"

"Oh no, young squire, I'm not _boorish_ old Artemis," the boy looked down at his younger sibling cheerfully, seeming to disregard the puzzled expression Myles wore. "Why, I'm Orion! Now, if he would just stop trying to block his memories from my view, I would be able to remember what he was doing here..."

"We...we w-were going to buy candies for Holly." stuttered Beckett.

"Ah yes!" Beckett jumped as Arte–no, _Orion's– _fist shot up into the air in victory. "_That_ was the quest! To obtain a gift for the fair maiden!"

Without further chatter, he began to canter off into the crowd, holding his hands up slightly, as though he were riding an imaginary horse. The twins exchanged worried looks, and then ran after him before he vanished from sight.

Orion was thoroughly enjoying himself. It was rare that he managed to escape the oppressive dungeons of Artemis' subconscious, and even then his time in the real world was short. Artemis had learned that muttering a mantra of _'you killed holly'_ over and over again was enough to frighten and disturb Orion so badly that he let Artemis take control. But of course, this worked with Artemis as well.

"Four four four four..." whispered Orion, trying to bring forth as many images of the number four to his mind instead of memories of Holly. "Four four four four..." ...there, Artemis seemed to have fainted in the back of Orion's mind...now, what to get as a gift? Candies were too juvenile, and not at all _romantic_ enough... As he nearly ran into a grimy little kid, he remembered that he had to keep Artemis' brothers safe. They weren't by his side, like they should be. He wheeled around, and saw them running towards him, panic etched on their little faces. As he waited for them to come closer, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was a small scarf in a window; it was the pale, soft shade of blue that made him notice. He found it difficult to tell from this far away, but he thought that the speckles on it were some sort of pattern...it was _perfect. _

Ten minutes later, Beckett and Myles were walking out of the store, following Orion, who was nearly catatonic with joy. Myles was rather worried, but he was the only one. Beckett thought that it was all a game, and Orion...well, Orion was being himself.

"Beckett," Myles whispered. "'We zap him again?"

Beckett took a long look at Orion, who was hugging the bag that contained the scarf. He looked as though he was about to cry. "Nah..." Beckett said with an evil grin. "Butler should see him first."


	2. Chapter 2

Butler glanced in the mirror of the car, checking on Artemis and the twins. All three of them had been oddly silent when Butler picked them up at the exit of the mall, and neither of them had spoken a word in the car. Briefly, he wondered if a stranger had stolen something of theirs, and that they were just worried about retrieving it, but it would be unlike both Beckett and Myles to not tell someone. He had told Madam Fowl that it wasn't such a good idea to let them wander around a place like that alone, without his protection, but she waved off his worries, insisting that Artemis should learn to manage himself _and_ that millions of teenagers went to the mall daily, and nothing happened to _them._ So perhaps the brothers were just musing over some spectacle that they witnessed.

Either way, both of the twins were fine and gazing out the window from the vantage point of their booster seats, and Artemis... Butler frowned slightly, and adjusted the mirror, as though to see if the image would change. But no, Artemis was still hunched over, scribbling furiously on a sheet of paper. The box that contained his purchase served as a miniature desk, and there was a folded piece of pale magenta card-stock on the edge of it, about to fall onto Artemis' knee. For a moment, Butler thought that he could see some lace beneath the paper, but a car behind him honked: the light had turned green. Cursing under his breath, he accelerated the car, focusing on finding the exit that led to the Manor. He had to swerve almost violently to the other lane as a car (full of teenagers, he noticed) swooped past him. The twins laughed, not realizing how close they came to being creamed, but Artemis did nothing but scramble to pick up his pen, which had flown out of his grasp. A moment later, Butler had turned into the exit (after almost crashing into a stopped truck and running over a family of ducks) and began to relax a bit.

"Butler, can you think of a word that rhymes with fulvous?"

Butler blinked. He risked a glance at the mirror again; Artemis was looking earnestly at him, tapping his pen on the box. He seemed at the edge of a breakthrough. Artemis rarely had breakthroughs of this level in the car...and he never asked Butler questions like this. How odd.

"I...uh..."

"Oh, wait, never mind. I found one...oh, this is turning out wonderfully..."

"..."

Now on an abandoned country road, Butler felt that it was safe to look in the mirror again. Artemis was writing feverishly again. Myles caught Butler's eye and shrugged, just as confused. Of course, Myles had a better idea as to what was happening with Artemis. He knew that somehow, "Orion"'s appearance correlated with the pills that Artemis had neglected to take for the past week, but he didn't know _why_ Artemis was taking the pills in the first place, or why giving him an electric shock stimulated this reaction. Apparently, Orion was still there; Artemis _never_ sat in the car writing. He had a netbook beneath the seats that he would use if he ever felt the desire to write.

Leaning over as far as his booster seat would allow him, Myles peered at the paper that Orion/Artemis was writing. It was full of swirling, graceful cursive, which he had an especially difficult time reading. The four-year-old could catch a few words (the, and, lovely, oh) but the rest was indecipherable. Myles wished he knew a few curse words in order to express his frustration more clearly. After a moment, he realized that someone else but him needed to know about "Orion". Butler was the first choice, as he was in the car with them. But Myles didn't really want to tell him outright–what if Butler didn't believe him? All Myles needed was some evidence to support his hypothesis...

Orion felt someone watching him. Slowly, as to not attract anymore attention, he neatly folded his draft in half, setting it on top of the magenta card-stock. For a moment, he fiddled with the pen-cap, sliding it on and off the ebony pen. From the weight of the pen, he could tell that it had been pretty expensive. He had found it in the pocket of Artemis' jacket (which had been left in the car), and he found it hard to believe that Artemis would ever need something this well-made. Why throw money around when a ball-point pen worked just as well and was ten times cheaper?

He jumped as something tapped his shoulder; he whirled around in his seat and saw Myles staring at him, concern in his azure eyes. Orion grinned nervously.

"Are you 'kay, Artemis?" Myles whispered.

"Perfectly fine." Orion replied, and turned back, staring out the window. He was a little miffed that Myles had tried to trick him into responding with "Oh, but I'm not Artemis, I'm Orion!". Didn't he prefer Orion to grouchy old Artemis? And surely he didn't think that he could be so easily tricked, and–

"Myles!" hissed Orion, yanking both the bag and the box out of the child's chubby hands. He glared at the four-year-old accusingly, clutching his gifts to his chest. "How _dare_ you, you, you _knave!_ These are _not for you."_

"Artemis, I'm allowed to see them!" shouted Myles, glancing towards Butler. "Why are you acting so weird?"

Butler jumped in his seat as Myles shouted, then pulled over to the side of the road in order to whirl around and settle the dispute. But Artemis was turned the other way, staring out the window, as though trying to melt the glass. Myles, on the other hand, looked as though he were about to cry; his face was a little flushed and he kept sniffing.

"Artemis," said Butler, confused. Artemis rarely ever argued with his brothers, and when they did, he usually gave in and let them win. "What just happened?"

"Nothing." he replied tersely, still gazing vehemently out the window. He was still holding his packages; a trail of pale blue lace peeked out from where it was sandwiched between the box and card-stock.

"Everything...!" wailed Myles, waking Beckett from his miniature nap. Butler gave Artemis a moment to explain. A moment passed in silence that was unbroken only by Myles' sniffs.

"Artemis, Myles, we're going to have to talk when we get back home." Butler said finally, blinking. "You two are always so well-behaved..." he mused to himself, turning back and restarting the car.

The rest of the five-minute trip to the Manor was uneventful and silent. Myles had to stop himself from laughing; his plan had worked almost perfectly. If Butler had somehow managed to make Orion slip and reveal himself, then it would have been exactly as he planned. Now all he had to do was to– somehow– make Orion do something really un-Artemis like, and then Butler would realize what had happened, and somehow fix things.

But as soon as Butler parked the car, Orion scooped up his purchases, practically leapt over Beckett (who had fallen asleep again), opened the car door, and trotted as quickly as he could to the Manor doors. Ignoring Butler's bemused expression, he tapped in the password for the lock, fumbling with his bags. The ornate doors swung open, and he slipped inside.

Time was the enemy now. As he raced through the halls, he could feel Artemis beginning to regain consciousness at the back of his mind.

_No..._Orion thought, stumbling over an overturned vase. _No, I just need more time! Alas...he can't find out about this! All my freedom will be gone..._

A second ticked past: Artemis opened his eyes, and groaned, once again facing the mind-screen. He could see...no, wait, he couldn't see. This was odd. He was always able to look through Orion's eyes, unless he happened to be asleep. Trying to ignore the rows of fours that automatically began to slink out in front of him, he stood up, and rapped the imaginary screen with his knuckles. Almost immediately, the ever-familiar chorus began; "_Four, four, four four, four, four..."_

It seemed to be to the tune of _Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head_, but nevertheless, he was forced to crouch on the floor, fighting the darkness that began to surround him...

Opening his eyes, Orion grinned. At least _one_ of his plans worked without a flaw. He ran up another flight of stairs, wheeled around an almost forgotten corridor, and creaked open a door. He stepped into the room, and sighed. This was Orion's room, or rather, the abandoned room that he had secretly taken over. It had a desk (which was strewn with papers) and a small cot. It didn't have a window, and the floor was creaky and unpolished, but it was Orion's refuge for whenever he managed to escape Artemis' subconsciousness. Artemis didn't know about it, as every time Orion managed to escape, Artemis was forced to pass out for a time in order to recuperate from the shock.

Not wasting any time, Orion sat down, and began to write...

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**There will be one more chapter, which finally gets to the scene that originally gave me the idea in the first place. ^_^**


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